A section of Church Street in front of City Hall has turned into a street food festival with live music as the inaugural Chow Down Downtown takes place today until 2:30 p.m.

Six food trucks and two food cart vendors are serving lunch to downtown workers and visitors, with live music by the Bureau Cats, a blues band made up of current and past City Hall employees. Church Street is closed to traffic between State and Fitzhugh streets and there are tables available for communal seating.

Dan Royo made the trek from his High Falls office to get lunch from Hello Arepa, a truck that does not vend in that section of downtown.

He likes the growth of food trucks in Rochester. "The more the merrier," he says.

City spokeswoman Kara Osipovitch says the event was Mayor Lovely Warren's idea and calls it the city's way of saying thanks to the food truck operators that have been patient as the city has worked out a pilot program that allows more trucks to operate downtown. The mayor actually helped serve on the Effortlessly Healthy truck for part of the afternoon.

Like the food trucks themselves, the city relied on social media to promote the event, which will likely take place again next year.

There was a lottery to select the six trucks and two carts in operation.